Chicago's Empires (not to be confused with the television show Empire) will be in Minneapolis next, next Monday, July 13th. They were previously in Minneapolis with Alkaline Trio.

The band is on tour in support of their latest Orphan album, available now on Chop Shop Music Group, Inc.
The record was produced by John Congleton (St. Vincent, Cloud Nothings, The War on Drugs, Explosions in the Sky).

Singer/songwriter Boh Doran will open the show, touring in support of her self-titled EP, available now on Big Stuff Records.

You know we love Morrissey... and so do you, apparently. Even at $85 (plus various taxes and fees), the iconic singer's upcoming Minnesota show at the Fitzgerald Theater sold out as quickly as it was announced.

Unfortunately the high ticket prices and sold out status is preventing us from being there. We've seen Moz a few times, he puts on a great show... so if you're going, you are going to have a blast.

Joining Morrissey on this World Peace is None of Your Business tour will be his longtime band, including Boz Boorer (guitar), Jesse Tobias (guitar), Mando Lopez (bass), Matthew Walker (drums) and Gustavo Manzur (keyboards).

My brother's favorite local band Frankie Teardrop will be headlining this July 13th show at the Turf Club in St Paul, Minnesota.

Indie rock group from Iowa City, The Olympics (not to be confused with the '50s doo-wop group The Olympics or Czech rock band Olympic or that the international sporting bi-annual events) set to open the show.

Also on the bill, local Chalk (not to be confused Salt Lake City's Chalk). The Minneapolis Chalk is described as "post-drake romantics". Their debut album, Haunted House, is available now.

Monday, 11 May 2015

American Horror Story is one of the show that has its ups and downs for me. The 'haunted house' story of the first season started out great. Then as it started to wind to its conclusion, I sort of fell out of love with it.
....

I recently bought American Horror Story Season 1 and 2 on Bluray (my favorite season is still the third season Coven), and was listening to the Ryan Murphy's audio commentary for the pilot and noticed this brief Morrissey appearance.

According to Ryan Murphy, he had to explain to Farmiga who Morrissey was, "Taissa had no idea who Morrissey was. Ha ha ha, we had to explain to her. She was so young."

As for the Blurays, they are kind of disappointing. There are no commentaries on any other episodes. It is a bare-bones release, but considering that I only paid $14 for each season, I didn't feel that bad.

Here is how the box art describe American Horror Story Season One:

Brace yourself for an addictive thrill ride! American Horror Story is TV's most original new drama, a deeply stylish psychosexual haunt devised to keep you on the edge of your seat. The Harmons' (Dylan McDermott, Connie Britton) fresh start in a new home deviously twists to reveal discoveries of love, sex, and murderous revenge. Featuring a Golden Globe - winning performance by Jessica Lange, Season One scares up a host of engrossing extras.

Brazilian artist Butcher Billy has created a series of 80s musicians as comic book characters... notably using Morrissey as Superman.

Although I think it's cool, I feel like he is just using these iconic artists, DC Comics, film art, album artwork, and images for personal gain... Especially because the prices are really expensive - $30 or more for T-Shirts and $31 or more posters.

Tuesday, 14 April 2015

013poppodium writes:
We regret to inform you that Morrissey is forced to cancel tonight's appearance in 013, Tilburg. Our stage crew, as well as Morrissey's touring party were already setting up stage
.…

It is weird that after Morrissey announced that he was dropped by his record label, Harvest Records, that he is still out promoting World Peace is None of Your Business. The latest single, "Kiss Me A Lot" is available exclusively on iTunes, via Etienne Records. I don't know about you, but the name 'Etienne' is "Stephen" in French... which is basically Morrissey's name (Steven Patrick Morrissey). Perhaps it's self-released, which I think is great. It is the modern age, Moz, all the kids are doing it.

Anyway, with that, Morrissey will be touring this Summer in the USA... It will be likely that his St Paul show will sell out, so if you live in the Minneapolis/St Paul area, I suggest you get your tickets now.

Upon research, I discovered that the song in question is a cover of The Smiths' "Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want" by the New York band Elefant. Most of the covers used in the movie are from the 80s.

Dallas' Sudie recently released her new single "Van Morrissey" (from her debut self-titled EP). The song is said to be about Sudie's two biggest influences: Van Morrison and Morrissey... with quotes like "My love being away from you is having a hole through my body where my heart's supposed to be" and "wait for me with as much passion as I love you and as much pain that I feel when I miss you".

Does this sound like something Van Morrison/Morrissey would write? Listen to the song for yourself via soundcloud.com/sudiemusic.

Legendary Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr recently dropped his cover of Depeche Mode's "I Feel You" on his soundcloud.com/officialjohnnymarr. It's only been two days but it's already racked over 35k plays.

Want to own the track? Look for it at this year's Record Store Day as a limited edition 7". B-Sides include live versions of The Smiths' "Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want", which Marr has played on his last tour.

Speaking of tour, Marr recently joined Noel Gallagher on stage at his Manchester show on March 9th, to play "Ballad of the Mighty I" as the encore.

The pair performed 'Ballad Of The Mighty I' together during the encore, a single which features on Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds' second album, the recently released 'Chasing Yesterday'. Marr plays guitar on the album version, but this is the first time the pair have performed the track together in public. Gallagher has called it one of his best songs, thanks to Marr's contribution.

In October 2014 Gallagher joined Marr on stage at London's O2 Academy Brixton to play The Smiths' 'How Soon Is Now', as well as a cover of Iggy Pop's 'Lust For Life'.

You know I'm a huge Smiths fan (yes, that's me, the one that touched Johnny Marr....) and wanted to mention that bassist Andy Rourke has a DJ gig at EastVillageRadio.com today (that's today, Tuesday, March 2nd at Noon ET).
…

Smiths' bassist Andy Rourke will be heading to Minneapolis next Saturday as a special guest to Minneapolis dance club Transmission's 14th Anniversary. As a longtime Smiths (and Britpop) fan, I can tell you that DJ Jake Rudh is also a fan and will play classic British music at his club.

Anyway, I was lucky enough to have met everyone in the Smiths (except for Morrissey, as he's rarely seen outside of a concert). We met Marr at Twin Town Guitars in Minneapolis in 2013 and Andy Rourke and drummer Mike Joyce at the Smiths Convention in 1997. If you met Marr last year, here's your chance to meet Rourke - mark March 21st on your calendar.

At the 11th hour, Morrissey cancelled his March 10th show in Tilburg. Look, I totally understand being sick and ill, but you would think Morrissey would have known he was unwell the night before or morning of?

Morbidly, I'm glad to have another date to cancellation list (currently up to 230 cancelled dates). This is the first 2015 cancelled date... and the venue 013's second time the show has been postponed.

The saddest part? Fans found out about the cancellation at the last minute... even the venue had no idea - as seen by the stage setup shown on their instagram.

We regret to inform you that Morrissey is forced to cancel tonight's appearance in 013, Tilburg. Our stage crew, as well as Morrissey's touring party were already setting up stage and all requirements for tonight's show when we were informed by management that Morrissey is unable to perform tonight due to flu. At the moment we are trying to re-schedule the date for later this month and will advise all ticket holders as soon as possible.

Monday, 09 February 2015

Breaking news, Morrissey has Ebola... At least that was the reason he gave to a fan who asked him for an autograph. With 229 cancelled or postponed tour dates since 1991, Morrissey being sick is no surprise. ...

25 Artists Who Have Never Won a Grammyby Zara Golden | February 4, 2015

(excerpt)

Times nominated: 1

For all his legendary work with the Smiths, for all his sterling solo work, for each and every one of his diatribes (there is a Best Spoken Word Grammy category, after all) Stephen Patrick Morrissey's only nominated effort was his 1992 album Your Arsenal. Moz lost in the Best Alternative Music Performance category that year to Tom Waits' Bone Machine, an event that likely did little to lighten his legendarily dyspeptic mood.

Since Select Magazine went away in 2000, Uncut Magazine took over as my favorite music magazine. In their latest issue, which came out in the stores in the UK this week (January 27th), they featured the 30th Anniversary of Meat is Murder ...

Treading cautiously over puddles of January Manchester rain, a group of tourists from Mexico, Australia, France and Israel take turns to pose in front of Salford Lads Club, the unassuming community centre made famous by their Mancunian heroes, The Smiths.

The lyrics and imagery created by the band’s lead singer, Morrissey, are forever associated with the Manchester of mid-1980s post-industrial decay; entrenched with accounts of stabbings, domestic violence and back-alley encounters in a city struggling to find new purpose following the demise of its textile and other traditional industries.

Since then, the city has been bombed by the IRA and had its centre reconstructed; it has hosted a Commonwealth Games and witnessed three decades of rapid growth and regeneration. Along the way, iconic locations in The Smiths story have disappeared or morphed into a new guise: the infamous site of their second gig, the Hacienda nightclub, was torn down and a luxury apartment block raised in its place; Rafters, the underground club where the band played soon after, is now a Tesco Express.

But, 30 years on from the band’s only UK No 1 studio album, Meat is Murder, how does The Smiths’ vision of life in Manchester compare with life in the city today? Where else to begin but ...

NME called this album "Greatest Albums of All Time", and I can't say I disagree. This is such a great album, because it is one of those albums that I know all the words to. There are no bad songs on this album
…

Saturday, 31 January 2015

Uncut Magazine must really love David Bowie. This is the second CD they put together featuring cover songs of some of Bowie's greatest songs. The first Bowie cover collection (Starman: Rare and Exclusive Version of 18 Classic David Bowie Songs) were from their March ...

Since Select Magazine went away in 2000, Uncut Magazine took over as my favorite music magazine.
In their latest issue, which came out in the stores in the UK this week (January 27th), they featured the 30th Anniversary of Meat is Murder with a The Smiths cover. I haven't seen it in the stores here, but typically we're slower to get imported magazines.

If you're impatient, you can get the magazine in its digital form for $3.99, but personally I would pay a little more to get the print edition (with free CD).

The Smiths, The War On Drugs, Kraftwerk and Bob Dylan all feature in the new issue of Uncut, dated March 2015.

Morrissey is on the front cover, and inside we celebrate the 30th anniversary of Meat Is Murder with an in-depth, inside look at the making of the record.

With help from band members, close associates and contemporaries - even Neil Kinnock - we learn about awkward moments in Little Chefs, car races with OMD and the use of sausages as an offensive weapon... "We were unmanageable!"

Adam Granduciel discusses The War On Drugs' 2014, a rollercoaster of a year which saw their third album, Lost In The Dream, achieve huge acclaim. The frontman even looks forward to the band’s next album, and finally talks at length about the little matter of Mark Kozelek...

Elsewhere, Kraftwerk members and associates tell the full story of Autobahn, a record that changed the world’s idea of Germany and revolutionised electronic music.

Bob Dylan's Shadows In The Night, a collection of Frank Sinatra covers, gets the full Uncut analysis in our reviews section, while we also look at Sinatra’s dealings with rock, a genre he once called "brutal, ugly, degenerate, vicious..."

Also in the issue, Allan Jones pays tribute to the late Joe Cocker, we examine Tim Buckley's overlooked final years, and put your questions to the master of soundtracks, Ennio Morricone, who discusses Sergio Leone, Quentin Tarantino and Morrissey.

Steve Cropper takes us through 10 of the greatest songs he played on and co-wrote - from Stax cuts from Wilson Pickett, Otis Redding and Booker T & The MG's, to later work with John Lennon, Big Star, Neil Young and the Blues Brothers - while Phosphorescent's Matthew Houck reveals eight records that have soundtracked his life.

Tim Burgess recalls The Charlatans' storied career in our 'album by album' piece this month, while Devo describe the inspirations behind their gleefully warped classic, Jocko Homo – from witnessing the tragic Kent State shootings to jamming with David Bowie in Cologne…

This month's 40-page reviews section includes Dylan, Led Zeppelin, Emmylou Harris, Slowdive, Father John Misty, The Pretty Things, The Pop Group, The Unthanks and more, while the Instant Karma section at the front of the magazine features Clive Langer, Man and Blake Mills, among others.

If you didn't know, New York-based the Sons & Heirs are a Smiths cover band, the name is taken from one of the Smiths' most well-known song, "How Soon Is Now?" ("I am the son and the heir, of a shyness that is criminally vulgar"). From my understanding, they do not play ...

I've seen The Sweet and Tender Hooligans at The Smiths convention in 1997... which is a long time ago. If I have time, maybe I'll dig out some artifacts from that time period to do a little flashback article. ...

Fun fact: I attended the very first The Smiths Convention in 1997. The guests of honor at the first convention were Andy Rourke and Mike Joyce and musical guests Sweet & Tender Hooligans.

Obviously, I haven't attended a Smiths/Morrissey convention since then, but does anyone care that Richard Blade is the guest of honor for the 2015 Convention? Why not Johnny Rogan or David T or Miriam from Altadena or Jo Slee or Stephen Street?

I know that that Blade interviewed Morrissey "at KROQ" in 1991 (the music session was released as an EP), but I'm not sure if I want to put down $30 at the door to meet him.

Anyway, The Smiths/Morrissey 2015 Convention will take place at the Avalon in Hollywood on Sunday, April 26, 2015. If you're going this year, let me know how it turned out.

Additional details:

Located at the Historic Hollywood & Vine Intersection... Across the street from The Capitol Records Building-!!

The 19th Annual Smiths/Morrissey Convention will take place @ The Beautiful AVALON in HOLLYWOOD Ca....6pm-2am....ALL AGES-!

Hosted by RICHARD BLADE and featuring Live Music Tributes to The SMITHS and MORRISSEY, Cool Collectibles, Rare Videos, Contests, Prizes, Guest DJ's... and of course Dancing All NIGHT LONG-!

This Year, Our Special Musical Guests will be:

The Sons & Heirs (A Tribute to The Smiths & Morrissey) from New York City... &

This Charming Band from San Francisco....Gonna be a Fun Night---Thank You--!

Friday, 23 January 2015

My favorite Werewolf movies are "Ginger Snaps". The first movie is about two teenage girls. It was brilliantly executed, paralleling the transformation to a Werewolf and going through puberty. The second movie does the same thing - only Werewolf/drug addiction ...

From Splice director Vincenzo Natali, Haunter is film about a family stuck in a haunted house. Abigail Breslin stars as Lisa Johnson, a girl who is re-living the same day over and over again. As you can see in this screen print, the Johnson character is quite the depressing anglophile: she's wearing a Siouxsie and the Banshees shirt, with posts of various UK bands like The Smiths (Meat is Murder), The Cure (Boys Don't Cry), Joy Division (Love Will Tear Us Apart), and David Bowie (Low). You can see another clearer screen capture on abigail-breslin.net.

Anyway, because it's a Canadian film production and it's a horror film about a young girl, it's often been compared to another classic Canadian film, Ginger Snaps, which is not bad company.

Additional film details:

Haunter (Not Rated)In Theaters October 18th, 2013

Plot: Abigail Breslin stars as a young girl who must unravel a decades-old mystery to save her family in this terrifying haunted house thriller.
Director: Vincenzo Natali

Breaking news, Morrissey has Ebola... At least that was the reason he gave to a fan who asked him for an autograph. With 229 cancelled or postponed tour dates since 1991, Morrissey being sick is no surprise.

There is no one closely associated with the Holiday Christmas spirit than Bing Crosby.... who could forget his rendition of "White Christmas" or his duet with the The Thin White Duke David Bowie? …

This is a bonus episode of W♥M, starring Vu, Emily and Cristina.

Random topics (warning: contains spoilers):

Emily's show of 2014 year is Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds.

Doctor Who is out of control for nerd people.

Cristina finally on the Game of Thrones train! Game of Thrones is Vu's favorite show.

The secret history of David Bowie and Morrissey.

At one time (circa 1992-1995), Bowie and Morrissey were friends. Post-1995, Bowie and Morrissey were no longer friends. What happened? Apparently, among the 228 Morrissey cancelled tour dates, Morrissey dropped out of the David Bowie's The Outside Tour, forcing him to find an opener replacement at the last minute.

In an interview with the Times Magazine (Saturday, Nov. 6, 1999), Morrissey said he left the tour due to pressure: ""I have never spoken about this up until now because, in spite of everything, I do respect David [Bowie]. I simply have to play Star Man or Drive-in Saturday and I will forgive him for anything. But I left that tour because he put me under a lot of pressure, and I found it too exhausting."

Last year, when Morrissey wanted to use a photo of David Bowie and Morrissey together for his re-mastered/reissued of "The Last of the Famous International Playboys" single, Bowie did not grant permission... and in typical Morrissey fashion, he also added that "Bowie has no legal rights to the photograph."

Former Smiths guitarist
Johnny Marr was forced to cancel all of the remaining US tour dates due to serious close family illness.

Marr writes, "I’m really disappointed to not be able to play the shows. The touring has been so enjoyable for me and the band and the audiences have been great everywhere. If it was about just me being unwell I would’ve found a way to continue as I did when I broke my hand earlier in the year, but to not be there for one of my family is not right. Thank you to everyone for the kind messages.

"Oh here is your audience now, and they're screaming: get off the stage..." - Morrissey.
I wasn't there, but apparently a lot of disappointed fans at the Morrissey at Club Stodola in Warsaw, Poland, on November 19th. …

In our recent W♥M Christmas 2014 Podcast we talked a little bit about Morrissey's bad reputation for cancelling shows... in light of a few canceled dates in Greece (12/05/14), Turkey (12/07/14), Switzerland (12/13/14), and Netherlands (12/15/14), on top of his walking out on his Poland (11/19/14).

My first encounter with Morrissey's infamous last-minute cancellation was the 1994 Los Angeles show. From my faulty memory, the show was sold out and my ticket price was $75 (not including tax). I might had to mail in my ticket for a refund (I didn't live in Los Angeles at the time), I wish I still had a copy of it to show you. Instead, the scanned ticket shown is actually from the New York show in 1994, which was also canceled.

The KROQers were miffed that Morrissey had postponed on short notice his scheduled April 8 concert at the Olympic Auditorium, for which the station had given away a lot of tickets. And just days before, the station had helped organize a large gathering of Morrissey fanatics at LAX to greet the arriving star, only to have him whisked away through another part of the airport.

KROQ music director Darcy Sanders says that the blow-up is over and forgotten now and that Morrissey's new "Vauxhall and I" album continues to be one of the most popular releases at the station.

Arnold Stiefel, Morrissey's manager, says that he's sorry that the fans and station were put out and promises to make it up with a special appearance by Morrissey around the time of the rescheduled Olympic date in August.

"It was unfortunate that they who were so nurturing and behind Morrissey felt the brunt of the postponement and other comedy of errors," he says.

The rescheduled show in August (actual date official date was September 30th) never happened.

Now... The Jesus and Mary Chain; totally not what I was expecting at all. After seeing Duran Duran last week though, it was nice to see a group of guys (that herald from a similar era, but opposite genre)
…

I've said it before, but I'm a slow reader... but know that I do read everything and I sometime make notes if something interesting comes out of it... Case in point, the Jesus and Mary Chain: Barbed Wire Kisses biography by Zoe Howe (St Martin's Press, 2014) mentioned Ruth Polsky, who originally brought The Smiths over on their first US tour.

...First they had a trip to New York to look forward to, organized by the late US promoter Ruth Polsky.

Polsky was well known; she had brought The Smiths to the US and was the promoter who had organized the US Joy Division tour that never happened, due to the tragic suicide of singer Ian Curtis on the eve of the trip. This would be the first time the Mary Chain had ever been to the US, and though they were playing just two shows they were booked to stay in New York for a week.

Just a very brief review (a full review will be written once I finish reading the book), The Jesus and Mary Chain: Barbed Wire Kisses is as official as it gets. Author Howe had incredible access to the two brothers Jim and William Reid, plus all the people closely associated with the band... including Alan McGee, who sometime will contradict what the brothers said! Lots of fighting (well, avoiding fights...), drugs, drinking, but it's all rock and roll fun.

Also, I've read a few biographies, and this book has a very good timeline. It's not as detailed and complete as, say, Johnny Rogan's The Smiths: The Visual Documentary, but the Jesus and Mary Chain timeline has all the important tent poles and events. Sometime non-Mary Chain-related, but they were included so you can quickly reference of that time period. For example, I clearly remember hearing the suicide of labelmate Lush's drummer Chris Acland in 1996, so I immediately understood right away where Mary Chain were at in their timeline.

Just a reminder that the Psychocandy tour is happening this February 2015.